Service-box



J. E. BOYLE. Service Box.

L e d o M 0 N No. 234,114. Patented Nov. 9,1880.

l/EN 70 .Jwmes .E. Boyte,

Gin/ma if. 540mm ILPETERS. PNOTO-UTHOGRAP UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

JAMES E. BOYLE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

SERVICE-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 234,114, dated November 9, 1880.

Application filed March 12, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom tt may conccm Be it known that 1, JAMES E. BOYLE, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Service-Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to leaden service boxes to be attached to the bottoms of elevated'water-tanks for flushing closets, urinals, &c.

The invention consists partly in the provision for connecting the twopart box together, and partly in the thickening up of the spherical bottom of the box, so that it may be enlarged by hammering or beating out, all as will be more fully hereinafter set forth.

In the drawings which serve to illustrate my invention, Figure l is a vertical mid-section taken through both parts of the box. Fig. 2 is a plan of the bowl or body of the box. Fig. 3 is a plan of the cover. Fig. 4 is a side view on a smaller scale, showing the method of nesting the bowls for shipment.

Heretofore boxes of this kind have been made in two ways-by cutting out and formin g up a box from the sheet-lead, and by casting the box in one piece in a sand mold. The first method is slow and costly, and the latter entails expense in the amount of material employed, as the boxes cannot be made thin when cast in a sand mold. The coring out also involves expense.

I cast my box in two parts, in metal molds, and am thus enabled to get a thin, shapely, and very perfect box.

A is the bowl or body of the box, which is substantially hemispherical. This bowl is provided with an attaching-flange, a, in which the screw-holes b b are cast, the said holes being properly countersunk on the under side of the rim. The bowl is not uniformly thick, the circles forming the concavity and convexity of the same being drawn from different centers, whereby the bottom of the same is thicker than the sides. The object of this is to enable the plumber to enlarge the capacity of the box by hammering out thebottom until it is thinner, and by this means expanding the bowl. The extra thickness at the proper point permits this without danger of making the box too thin. If the box were formed up by hand out of sheet-lead of uniform thickness, any attempt at enlargement in this way would injure it.

The construction which enables the plumber, in attaching the box, to first increase the size or capacity of the same by hammering is important, as the different kinds of closets in use require differentquantities of water to properly flush them and fill their pans, and the height of the tank above the closet also renders a variation in the sizes of the boxes desirable; and as the manufacture of a great variety of boxes would involve great expense, it will be seen that I effect a great saving by constructing the boxes of uniform size, and ordinarily of the minimum capacity, but of such a charac ter that they may be readily enlarged to exactly suit the closets for which they are intended.

It is not important that the bowl should be made to increase gradually in thickness from the flange a to the center of the bottom, but I prefer this construction. The sides might be made uniformly thick and the bottom only be made thicker.

B is the cover or upper part of the box, which is shown in Fig. 1 as raised a little above its seat. When in place it rests in a rabbet or groove, 0, in the bowl A. This rabbet is deep enough to bring the top of the cover down flush with the top of the flange a, so as to make a smooth finish, and when in place there is room enough in the rabbet around the cover to run in solder for a good joint, or the joint may be closed by burning or melting the lead. The cover is provided with short tubes (Z and c, whereon to attach the valve and overflow pipes usually employed with these boxes.

Underneath the flange a and at the junction of the wall of the bowl with the same is formed a bead or fillet, g, which serves to strengthen the bowl at that point, where it would otherwise be weakened by the formation of the rabbet 0.

When the bowls are nested for shipment, as shown in Fig. 4, the bead of one bowl rests on the flange of the next below.

Lead, of which these boxes are made, being Very heavy and quite soft, it is important in their manufacture to consider transportation. My box possesses the inininmuin of weight with the maximum of convenience and safety for shipment. The bowls A nest together, as shown, while the covers B may be packed together face to face, and thus be transported with little danger of distortion or injury in other ways.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim 1. As an improved article of manufacture, a leaden service-box having a thickened bot tom, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination, to form a service-box, of a body or reservoir provided with a rabbet, c, and a cover, B, arranged to lit into the said In witness whereof I have hereunto signed 25 my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES E. BOYLE.

Witnesses:

HENRY CONNETT, ARTHUR O. FRASER. 

